You won't be surprised by the interface of the phone if you've ever used any Motorola phone in the past. The four directions of the D-pad are shortcuts, which operation can be user-assigned and you can choose if you want to see their icons all the time or keep them hidden. Pressing the center key opens the main menu that is displayed in old-fashioned 3x3grid of icons or a list, depending on user's choice. As with previous models, the animated icons can be reordered and shortcuts assigned to them, but they won't have any by default. Thanks to the themes, you can graphically change the appearance of the phone, but the three preloaded changed nothing but the background images. We believe that other themes may have greater effect, as it was with those of earlier Motorola phones (V3i, L7, etc)

An interesting flaw we experienced during our test is that after a few theme changes, a bug appeared and in the service lines (the top and bottom) the phone displayed part of the image of a theme that is not currently used. Changing to other theme didn't help as well as restarting the phone and even removing its battery. We've no idea why it happened and how it may be removed.

Phonebook:

The phonebook is pretty standard: the contacts can be viewed either as a plain names-list or as a list with called ID image and the number (you can choose alternative numbers added using the left and right directions when you have selected a specific contact). Searching for a contact is done by typing a character directly through the keypad  searched are the fields for the first or last name, but any words after the first in a field will not be searched through. For example, if you have First name: Joe OneLast name: Thirdand search for One, Joe One Third will not be found as a match.

Setting a ringer or Picture Id while entering a new contact is easy as well as adding additional numbers - just use Options-Add number and you will have two new fields  for the number and its type  a big improvement for Motorola! There is a BirthDay field, but it is pretty much useless as the phone will not notify you on that date about the event. Organizing the contacts by groups is available, but seeing a specific group is not an easy operation and the user will have to filter the displayed contacts by a group. You can see a single one, and then the other, but it requires lots of steps through the menus  for the time required for the operation, a search through the names can be performed. Still, it is nice that the user can set shared ringer and picture ID for a whole group, as well as create new groups.

When an incoming call is received, the external display will show the number calling, or the name assigned to it, if you have it in your contact list. The PictureID would also appear, if you've set it in your contact options, and even animated images are visualized. One thing we didn't like as it is not improved from previous models  if the options Open to Answer is on, you can not reject the call, but it can be silenced.

Organizer:

Using the phone's calendar, the user can browse it by month or week, as well as by a single date. Adding an event is done in a few simple and logical steps and you will have options for reminders. A nice addition is the Lunar Date, although it will be useless to most people and can be switched off.

In the menu Tools you may also find the plain calculator; the phone doesn't feature scientific one. Here are also the Alarms (up to five with own name, time and alert tone) and the world clock, which can keep an eye on up to three locations that you've set. It doesn't have graphic interface (map of the world) as those on most other phones.

The voice recorder can be easily activated with the right side key or through the menus. It can record as much as the available memory allows which can be a lot, thanks to the slot for microSD cards. The latter is situated bellow the battery cover as it was with the V3i, but not below the battery itself and so you can swap cards without powering the phone off.

The KRZR also supports speaker-independent voice commands: by pressing the voice key on the right side you will open the dialog box for commands. You can choose if you want to use the speakerphone, which we found more convenient. Dialing names directly from your phonebook or numbers by digit-dialing is possible. It is also possible to train the KRZR for better accuracy and it is done in 10 steps taking a few minutes. After we've adapted the digits we had a great success and we found this system usable, but you may have some problems with the names in your phonebook. Once again names like Brother, Mother, John and The Boss were correctly found in almost all of our tries, but we weren't able to call contact with name Amy.

Related phones

6 Comments

Display mode:

1.VCI_Cell (unregistered)

Just wanted to chime in and differ with the reviewer's comments on reception. He must have had a bad unit, because I've been using my k1 here in the States for about four months on a very poorly-built-out network (T-Mobile), and its reception is quite excellent. I frequently have service with my KRZR when my other device, also T-Mobile, does not.

2.Dan (unregistered)

The reviewer must have had a defective phone. I bought the KRZR K1 from Cingular to replace my unlocked RAZR and the reception is great. My house is in a bit of a deadspot and I consistently get 3-5 bars and clear call quality with the KRZR, with no more "call failed" messages. This is a great phone first and foremost. All of the other features are a bonus.

3.Telomaniac (unregistered)

i am planning to buy a new phone and that one is in my list, with this detailed review i learned a lot about this phone. I want to thank you for this cool review, and oh yeah this phone is a head turner :)

5.PhoneArena Team (unregistered)

6.MatthewsElisa33 (unregistered)

I had got a dream to start my own business, nevertheless I did not have got enough of money to do that. Thank heaven my dude told to take the credit loans. Thence I used the college loan and made real my desire.

All content (phone reviews, news, specs, info), design and layouts are Copyright 2001-2015 phoneArena.com. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part or in any form or medium without written permission is prohibited! Privacy . Terms of use . Cookies . Team